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OTTAWA, Feb. 18 /CNW/ - The OttawaIsrael Awareness Committee strongly
condemns the intimidation and bullying tactics used by members of
Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) at last night's CUSA
meeting. At the same time, the IAC commends members of the CUSA
executive and council for their principled stance in upholding the
democratic process at Carleton, and for not succumbing to these
bullying tactics.

"There can be no place on our campus for the kind of blatant disregard
for student safety and due process that was perpetrated last night by
certain members of SAIA",said Emile Scheffel, IAC member and student
senator. "We must not allow Carleton to be politicized to the point
where students' safety is in jeopardy. CUSA is to be applauded for
standing up against such attacks on democracy, and for rejecting
thuggish behaviour."

The events of Thursday night came in the context of SAIA's campaign to
pass a motion demonizing the state of Israel. This motion was rejected
by the CUSA council. At the same time, a motion calling on the
university to divest from truly unethical situations was passed. "We
commend CUSA for passing a resolution on ethical investments", said
Mark Klibanov, IAC President and 4th year engineering student."This
shows that they take real human rights abuses seriously, and have not
bought into the obsession of some to demonize Israel."

"We want Canadian campuses to be peaceful," said Aaron Vomberg, President
of the Canadian Federation of Jewish Students."We want any discussions
to be open, inclusive and representative of the entire student body.
The dangerous and toxic environment that we witnessed last night at
Carleton is unbecoming of a Canadian university and is in complete
contradiction of our core Canadian values."